Resident warns council the sewage treatment plant discharge could pose nitrate risk to local wells

Scott Levine, a long‑time Wasilla resident, told the council during public participation that he is “by no means an expert” but is concerned about a city project to discharge treated effluent onto the swamp next to the sewage treatment plant.

Levine told the council he has lived on the bluff southwest of the plant for 30 years and said his well hit water at about 85 feet. He said the city is pursuing a project to discharge “a half a 1000000 gallons of effluent a day” into the adjacent swamp with the intent that vegetation will process nitrates and ammonia to meet ADEC or EPA discharge standards. He warned that nitrates can migrate and contaminate drinking water aquifers.

“One of the risks is the cost of not doing it and contaminating our drinking water,” Levine said. He cited a 2017 engineering working‑group study (he described it as a public‑records analysis) that found elevated nitrates in many community water systems and said agriculture is a major source of nitrate contamination in drinking water in some areas. Levine said pilot testing included drilling wells from the swamp through to the drinking‑water aquifer.

Levine asked the council to require cleaner treatment prior to surface discharge. He concluded: “It won't be easy, it won't be cheap. The risk is the cost of not doing it and contaminating our drinking water and adding us to those statistics that I quoted earlier.” The council acknowledged his remarks during public participation; there was no formal staff response recorded in the transcript.

Why this matters: a resident raised potential public‑health and long‑term water‑quality concerns tied to a planned effluent discharge method and to nitrate migration. The council and staff may need to follow up with technical briefings, monitoring data or clarifications about planned treatment levels and ADEC/EPA permit requirements.